Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 Abie Jangala
Ngarrkie Language Group
Lajamanu, Tanami Desert,
Abie Jangala was born around 1919 in the bush, in the vicinity of Thompson's Rock about 350 kilometres south of Lajamanu in the Tanami Desert.
After the war Jangala joined his family at Yuendumu, an Aboriginal reserve specifically created to accommodate the increasingly displaced Warlpiri population; later he was moved to a second Warlpiri settlement at Catfish, 600 kilometres to the north.
Despite these moves, at 16 years of age Jangala returned to the land of his birth to undergo his traditional initiation.
Abie Jangala has lived at Lajamanu in the Northern Territory since the early 1950's and is a strong and highly respected elder in this Warlpiri community. He is a man of great ritual authority, ceremonial boss for water-rain-cloud and thunder Jukurrpa (Dreamings) centred on widely dispersed sites in the Tanami Desert.
He says he paints the way his father tells him to paint as he comes to me in dreams.
His work is noted for its striking dense white dotting over a base colour and simple bold linear designs symbolising the graphic quality of the desert. The elements of thunder, lightning and rain which underpin the belief system of the nomadic Warlpiri people, resonate powerfully in a field of white dots.
Abie Jangala became a painter in 1983 and soon his work began to be exhibited in group shows in Australia, the USA and Europe. His work is represented in museum collections all over Australia.
Abie Jangala died in 2003
Subjects and Themes
Ngapa - water dreaming, Frog Dreaming, rain, cloud thunder
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands
Bromberg Collection, Cincinatti USA
Kaplan Levi Collection Seattle USA
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Flinders University Art Museum
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
1993 Abie Jangala - Boss of the Water - Rain - Clouds and Thunder Dreaming, Cooee Aboriginal Art, Sydney
Group Exhibitions
1983 D'un autre continent: l'Australie le reve et reel, ARC, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
1987 Australian Made, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1989 Lajamanu Painters, Dreamtime Gallery, Perth, WA
1989 Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for the Arts, USA
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia
1991 Yapa: Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et Lajamanu, Baudoin Lebon Gallery, Paris, France
1992 Crossroads - Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Koyoto and Tokyo, Japan
1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
1995 Stories: Eine Reise zu den Dingen, touring, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum fur Volkerkunde Leipzig, Hausder Kulteren der Welt Berlin, Ludwig-Forum fur International Kunst Aachen
1996 Abie Jangala and Artists from Lajamanu, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
1996 This is my country, This is me, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
1996 Nangara:The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition - from the Ebes Collection Sichting Sint-Jan, Brugges, Belgium
1996 Abie JangalaWarlpiri Rainman, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
1997 Juxtapositions: an exhibition of Australian Indigenous works rom the collection of the Flinders Art Museum, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
1999 16th NATSI Art Award, MAGNT Darwin
2003 Yilpinji Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, B.C. Canada
Bibliography
Brody, A., Krempel, U., Bahr, E., (eds.), 1995, Stories: Eine Reise zu den grossen Dingen, exhib. cat., Landeshauptstadt Hannover Der Oberstadtdirektor Sprengel Museum Hannover and Autoren
Monty, S., 1990, Abie Jangala, Special Double Issue Artlink 10 (1&2), 15
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London
Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria
Glowezewski, B., 1991, Yapa: Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et LajamanuThe Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House
NT Department of Education, 1985, Stories from Lajamanu
Ryan, J., 1989, Mythscapes Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Ryan, J, 1990, Paint up Big, Warlpiri Women's Art of Lajamanu, National Gallery of Victoria
Wallace, D., Desmond, M Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes, a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth
1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings: Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971 - 1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Brody A.M. Stories: eleven aboriginal artists,Works from The Holmes a Court Collection
Allen & Unwin 1999 McCulloch, S. Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture, Allen & Unwin 1999
Tribal Elders : Symbolic Dreamings, EON International Pty Ltd. 1998 Edited by Laura Murray Cree & Neville Drury
Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House 2000
Medium
Screenprint and acrylic paint on canvas, limited edition prints
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